Predicting outcome after cardiac transplantations: Lessons from the cardiac transplant research database

Survival and quality of life after transplantation are limited by posttransplant events such as rejection and infection. The description and subsequent prediction of these and other events is the goal of the Cardiac Transplant Research Database group. This paper provides a description of the purpose, methods of data collection and analysis, and results of the published data from the Cardiac Transplant Research Database. A review of the analyses of death, rejection, and infection is made along with a discussion of the clinical application of these data. Utilizing the data from the Cardiac Transplant Research Database, the clinician may apply established risk factors for posttransplant adverse events to individual patients.